Pyrgi Tablets

The Pyrgi Tablets are three gold plates of about 500 BCE, two inscribed in Etruscan and one in Phoenician, found in 1964 at ancient Pyrgi, on the Tyrrhenian coast of Lazio. They record the dedication of a temple by Thefarie Velianas, ruler of nearby Caere, to the goddess called Astarte in the Phoenician text and Uni in the Etruscan. Though not a word-for-word translation, the bilingual text helps scholars interpret Etruscan and shows Phoenician or Punic influence in the western Mediterranean. They are in the National Etruscan Museum, Villa Giulia, Rome.